Nonlinear Propagation of Planet‐generated Tidal Waves

The propagation and evolution of planet-generated density waves inprotoplanetary disks is considered. The evolution of waves, leading to theshock formation and wake dissipation, is followed in the weakly nonlinearregime. The local approach of Goodman & Rafikov (2001) is extended to includethe effects of surface density and temperature variations in the disk as wellas the disk cylindrical geometry and nonuniform shear. Wave damping due toshocks is demonstrated to be a nonlocal process spanning a significant fractionof the disk. Torques induced by the planet could be significant drivers of diskevolution on timescales of the order 1-10 Myr even in the absence of strongbackground viscosity. A global prescription for angular momentum deposition isdeveloped which could be incorporated into the study of gap formation in agaseous disk around the planet.Comment: AASTeX, 26 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, submitted to Ap